Last fall Anderson Diniz Hummel became a Certified Scrum Trainer. This means that he has been approved by the Scrum Alliance to teach Certified Scrum Master and Certified Scrum Product Owner classes. The journey to becoming a CST is never easy and never as quick as anyone would like and for Anderson, it was over three years from the time he first started working on it. (And this is after already having taught at the University level for a number of years.)

During the recent holidays Anderson and I had a conversation about what his journey to CST was like. We recorded this in hopes of helping offer some encouragement, advice and support for others who are headed down the path.

To help provide some background about the CST designation, according to the Scrum Alliance’s 2018 State of Scrum Report, there are over 500,000 certified practitioners of Scrum worldwide. Within that community, only 234 people are certified by the Scrum Alliance as being allowed to teach Certified Scrum Master and Certified Scrum Product Owner classes. So, it is a rare certification to have and many people who begin heading down the path do not have a great understanding of what to expect. Hopefully this interview will help with that.

SHOW NOTES

00:09 Podcast Begins - What’s up with Anderson

01:56 Anderson’s background as a teacher and how that led to him applying for Certified Scrum Trainer

03:10 How is teaching Certified Scrum classes different than teaching at the University level

04:39 Anderson’s 3 year journey to become a Certified Scrum Trainer

10:17 Being a CST is a lot more than just teaching Scrum correctly

11:36 How Anderson went from failing art exams in school to excelling at creating art in his classes

15:45 How big a role does experience working on Scrum teams play into teaching CSM and CSPO classes

19:25 Anderson’s advice for coaches who want to become Certified Scrum Trainers

25:20 Understanding how teaching all day impacts you as a human and planning recovery time

27:32 A word of caution for new CSTs who try to book too many back to back classes

In this podcast, Jenny and Andrew explain why they wrote the book, how PMI-ACP has evolved and why reaching a level where you are no longer concerned about the tools you use to get work done are traditional or agile is a great place to be.

SHOW NOTES

01:19 Interview Begins

01:50 Background on Jenny and Andrew

03:30 Who the book IS NOT for

04:48 Who is book IS for and how it can help you move beyond simply going through the motions

06:29 The debate over principles vs. practices and it has impacted Andrew and Jenny’s approach

11:55 If you are new to Agile of have no experience working with Agile practices, how can this book help?

14:32 Why PMI-ACP prep is the secondary goal of this book. (And what the primary goal is.)

16:05 How the PMI-ACP exam has evolved and how Jenny and Andrew approached the topics for this book

19:23 How the authors ensured the book covers 100% of the material included on the PMI-ACP exam

20:21 Is is harder for a PMP to learn Agile, or harder for an Agilist to learn traditional Project Management?

21:40 Reaching the “Ri” level of project management where Agile vs. Waterfall is no longer a concern

22:43 Agile has moved beyond software, even reaching into construction, and how the is impacting PMI’s approach to Agile

24:46 Agile and the PMO: Is the PMO a dead man walking?

26:10 Scaling Agile is large organizations

27:44 What is the most dynamic/challenging area of Agile that we need to pay attention to?

In preparing for my How to Hack Agile for Digital Agencies at the 2017 Digital PM Summit I did a lot of research and conducted a lot of interview. This conversation, with Lance Hammond and Robert Sfeir from HUGE Atlanta was the last one I did before the Summit. During this discussion Lance and Robert share many of the lessons they’ve learned in bringing Agile to HUGE and they provide clarity on what it takes to make Agile work in a Digital Agency.

SHOW NOTES

00:08 Podcast Begins

01:42 Some background on Robert and Lance

03:17 How long HUGE has been working on introducing Agile

04:40 Resistance from Design when switching to an Agile approach

06:08 Why Kanban may be a better approach for Design

07:39 How the Designers at HUGE approach their work without having all the requirements up front

09:30 Establishing Vision up front with the client and prioritizing options with them

10:33 The client needs to own the delivery from the very beginning and become part of the process

11:50 Making the client your partner in the workflow and decision making process

14:17 Why teaching the client how to work in Agile has to be an accepted cost

16:07 Why those with experience in Agile transformation can be so beneficial for Digital Agencies and what you need to watch out for

17:52 Changing how the work gets funded

20:22 How to change your Statement of Work to support Agile practices

21:47 Tips for convincing your client to want to use Agile to manage the work

24:11 Caring and feeding of the client during an Agile project at a Digital Agency

27:53 Should you include the client in the retrospective?

28:46 Do you need to have cross-functional, stable teams that are each working on only one project?

32:04 How long did it take HUGE to get to stable teams

34:02 Use Lean metrics to find and remove waste

34:20 How critical is it to move to a retainer (fund the team) model

35:30 You have to know why you want Agile, which approach you’ll take, and what you want from it

37:05 Scrum may have you thrashing for a bit before you switch to Kanban… and there is value in that

37:49 Why you need to switch the entire Digital Agency over to an Agile approach (including sales)

39:22: What is the hardest part about implementing/working with Agile in a Digital Agency

42:32 Defining what you are willing (and not willing) to try changing, when you switch to an Agile approach

44:30 How HUGE approaches estimating work

48:40 Why it is so important to watch and learn (inspect) before you start trying to change things (adapt)

50:45 Why Robert and Lance do not believe Scrum can work in a Digital Agency that wants Agile, but why you need to try it first to unlock the value of Kanban

In this podcast Michael de la Maza and Dhaval Panchal talk about their new book “Agile Coaching: Wisdom from Practitioners”. Michael and Dhaval are the co-editors of the book which is full of stories, tips, and advice from experienced, Agile coaches and trainers. In addition to talking about the book, Michael and Dhaval also share their own thoughts on topics around coaching and they offer advice for those who are headed down the coaching path.

SHOW NOTES

01:28 Podcast Begins

02:01 Who is the book for

02:26 What misconceptions do clients have
when an Agile coach walks in the door

03:52 How do you provide coaching in an organization that is not ready for it

05:04 How do you (as a coach) coach yourself when you are trying to work with
individuals that do not want your help

07:12 Some tips for getting started with a coaching engagement

10:27 What does it take to become an Agile coach

13:17 What is the job of an Agile coach

13:53 When the client wants to pay large sums for you to MAKE them agile

19:06 When will we evolve past waterfall?

23:41 Do you have to be an expert in Agile to be a good coach? What do you need to do before you can be qualified to be a coach?

The interview includes a conversation about working with User Stories that are sized to only take the team a single day to complete and how this may help teams that are struggling with estimation. Dave and Johanna’s also discuss her approach to writing (she averages about 1 book a year in addition to posting to her blog every few days) involves writing for just 15 minutes a day.